This invention relates to new and useful improvements in denture support frames of the type which include implants set in the jaw bone.
Various types of implants have been conceived for anchoring artificial dentures to the jaw bones. A basic implant, as shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,577,853, comprises a body member arranged to be mounted in the ramus portion of the lower mandible and including an integral post extending up from one end of the body member. This post protrudes above the bone and through the gum tissue to provide a denture support. From such ramus implants, dental supports have expanded in their concept to include bar members leading fully around the lower mandible between the ramus portions of the mandible. Examples of such bars are shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,671 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,382. In the formation of such bar-type denture supports, it is desired that the bar have a solid support in the ramus portions of the mandible and also that it have a structure which will not pivot in the bone or deflect to the extent that the implants will loosen in the bone due to the stresses of mastication. Such support can be inadequate if the bars are of improper shape and also if they fit improperly in the ramus portions.
It has generally been thought that the best securement of the ends of the bars to the ramus portions of the mandible is adjacent the outer surface of the mandible since this outer portion is made up of hard corticle type bone. In shaping the bar and end implant portions thereof, the denture support bars have been made with offset or reversing curvatures and the ramus implant portions severely angled to reach this hard corticle bone location. The shaping of the bar and end implant portions to provide this implant installation contributed to deflection which eventually caused the implant to loosen from the stresses of mastication. Such shaping of the bar also tended to locate the bar close to the sides of the mouth and has resulted in compaction of food in these areas.